I had no trouble running SW on my Surface Pro 3 for a few weeks. Now, it doesn't display properly and no amount of restarting the computer has fixed it so far. Check out the attached picture. It seems like others are experiencing this problem as well. Any thoughts?

before you try another driver, what happens if you run solidworks in software opengl mode for awhile (with all files closed, tools > options > systems options > performance > use software opengl) if the problem goes away, it is an incompatibility with an supported graphics card and driver. you'll just want to try a few until you get one that works. solidworks doesn't currently test or support non pro cards.

I'm using the same driver, so I don't have another driver suggestion. Do you have a bunch of add-ins enabled? Not sure that they'd have an effect, just throwing crap at the wall to see if something sticks.

Yes, SolidWorks staff do come through the forums.They're all gearing up for SolidWorks World, so they won't be as active in the coming weeks.

Have you tried running a repair on your install? Another option would be to do a clean install, whereby you unistall SolidWorks (including registry files, etc) and reinstall it. Perhaps neither will help, but something to think about before you return your Surface.

Have you tried disabling high DPI Settings in Windows 8? This is a feature of Windows on these high resolution screens that keeps programs and apps from displaying correctly until they are updated for the next generation of screens. To enable this:

Thanks for the suggestions, Michael. Unfortunately, I tried disabling high DPI settings and the problem persisted. I'm uninstalling SW now and will reinstall this week. Any suggestions for special setup instructions? I'll try to wipe all SW settings on my computer during the uninstall.

First, go to Start->All Programs->SolidWorks->SolidWorks 20xx->SolidWorks Tools->Copy Settings Wizard and run it. This will create a reg file of your settings so you don’t have to recreate the environment you’re used to. Do the usual add/remove program thing and get rid of SolidWorks. Open up Windows Explorer and do a search for SolidWorks. Be sure to include hidden files and folders. When SolidWorks installs, it dumps some stuff into C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data, which is, generally, a hidden folder. You’ll want to delete any SolidWorks folders on your hard drive, except for ones you created to hold models/assemblies/drawings. Still with me? Good. Now, this next step is not for the faint of heart. If you’re uncomfortable messing around in your registry files, skip down to the next paragraph. Go to Start->Run and type in regedit then hit� ‘ok’. This will open up the registry editor. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and delete the any SolidWorks related folders. This may include eDrawings, Dassault Systemes, COSMOS, etc. Do the same in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE. You can also download a cleaning utility, such as ccleaner, to further check the registry and remove dangling .dlls. At this point, you can follow one of two paths. You can reboot or not reboot. I’ve heard various theories on both. Personally, I don’t reboot. More to the point, I tend to forget to reboot. Nonetheless, I haven’t had any issues by not rebooting. Go ahead and install SolidWorks.

I had this same, stupid problem that made me lose 3 workdays. The desktop would show through the background of the Solidworks viewport. Tried some driver fixes with no luck. But found out an easy solution that seems to be working still. I'm on Windows 10 but this should work for 8 or 7.

Find the Solidworks program file (the thing you double-click to run Solidworks)Right button click on it.

Go to Properties (if it doesn't say Properties, go to Open File Location, then right button click on the actual file).

Go to the Compatibility tab.Make sure it says "Run this Program for": (I put Windows 8, but 7 might also work).

Check "disable DPI scaling"Check "run this as administrator"

Now honestly it's probably only one of those things, but I just did a cocktail approach and now it works and I don't care to look into it any further. If this works, bump this up. Hope it helps someone else!